Spoiler Alert!: Annie Hall, a tribute

Taken from my second term paper from Bill Wine's COM 204 class. enjoy. it's my favorite film.

Annie Hall, Woody Allen’s 1977 piece that many claim to be his best, is a quirky romantic comedy in which our protagonist, Alvy Singer, finds love in a scatterbrained, but lovable, nightclub singer, Annie Hall. It is a rare gem among romantic comedies, in that it really touches on the neurotic side of relationships, not just the hearts, flowers, and candy. It explores the neurotic and realistic side of romance, similar to such films as When Harry Met Sally… and Love Actually. Annie Hall is truly set apart by its actors, Allen as Alvy and Diane Keaton as Annie, the various visual techniques used to keep the film moving, and the clever and memorable dialogue.

Woody Allen has set his own trend of starring in his own films, typically with his current muse, most notably Mia Farrow and Diane Keaton. This film is actually a semi-autobiographical account of the relationship between Diane Keaton, born Diane Hall, and Woody Allen. Phil Villarreal of The Arizona Daily Star notes that “Keaton and Allen - who were once a couple and would work together in several films - glow with genuine affection.” Allen plays his typical neurotic, pessimistic, New York Jew, but is toned down considerably in Annie Hall, making the film all the more realistic. This film is autobiographical on many levels, another one being Allen / Alvy’s many neuroses, one of which was almost the title of the film. The condition anhedonia causes sufferers to be unable to experience pleasure, much like Alvy Singer. Diane Keaton’s Annie Hall, however, is one of the most memorable and imitated movie characters of all time. She is seemingly scatterbrained and naïve, but still smarter than most movie heroines could ever imagine being. Her Ralph Lauren wardrobe inspired a generation of women to wear ties, button down shirts, and wrinkled khaki’s, known as the “Annie Hall” look. Roger Ebert notes in The Chicago Sun-Times that “Annie Hall, played by Diane Keaton, sets the form for many of Allen's onscreen girlfriends: Pretty, smart, scatterbrained, younger, with affection gradually fading into exasperation. Women put up with a lot in Allen's movies, but at a certain point they draw the line.”

Both lead actors and the entire supporting cast are top notch actors in their own rights, but paired with the script and concept of Annie Hall, they are allowed to truly exhibit their talents. Shelley Duvall makes for a very interesting unaffected Rolling Stone journalist, who goes on a date with Alvy after he breaks up with Annie for the first time. Christopher Walken is remembered for his role in Annie Hall as Dwayne Hall, Annie’s brother who has a “heart-to-heart” with Alvy about driving. Although his part is brief and more or less inconsequential, he carries one of the funniest scenes in a movie that spends most of its time making the audience chuckle. New York Times columnist Vincent Canby notes: “One of Mr. Allen's talents as a director is his casting, and Annie Hall contains more fine supporting performances than any other American film this year, with the possible exception of The Late Show and Three Women. Most prominent are Paul Simon as a recording industry promoter, Carol Kane as Alvy's politically committed first wife, Tony Roberts as Alvy's actor-friend, Colleen Dewhurst as Annie Hall's mother, and Christopher Walken as Annie's quietly suicidal brother. That's to name only a few.” Christopher Null agreed by saying “Woody Allen is at his best as an actor, and Diane Keaton has never had a better role. What makes Annie Hall so much fun, though, is the cameos -- from Paul Simon to Jeff Goldblum's one liner (On the phone: "I forgot my mantra!"), it's a complete send-up of the 70s. Best is Christopher Walken as Annie's psychotic brother.”

Diane Keaton was nominated for her performance in Annie Hall, and won the 1977 Best Actress Oscar. Woody Allen was nominated for his performance as well, but took home the Best Director award instead. The film also won Best Picture for Charles H. Joffe and Best Original Screenplay for Allen and Marshall Brickman. Annie Hall defeated the box office winner Star Wars: A New Hope for Best Picture, and was ironically enough the smallest grossing Best Picture winner to date. To explain this winning streak, Marjorie Baumgarten of The Austin Chronicle writes “Annie Hall is the one Woody Allen film that is better than all the rest.”

Annie Hall makes use of many film techniques that one does not typically see in a romantic comedy. It frequently breaks the illusion of reality for both the audience and the characters. Annie Hall is a relatively realistic movie; however the characters do things that are not always the most realistic actions. Early on in the film, Alvy is giving the audience a brief run down of his childhood, sometimes stepping right into the flashbacks. The classroom scene is a classic example of this technique in Annie Hall, for when the teacher begins to chastise young Alvy for kissing girls at the age of six, grown Alvy yells right back at her, only to be put in his place by another child. Allen also enjoys using the split screen technique in this piece. One example of an effective use of the split screen is at the Easter dinner. The left half of the screen is occupied by the Hall’s, eating a traditional Easter meal, complete with ham and all the trimmings, and having WASP-y conversations. The right half is the Singer’s Easter meal, where there is loud talking about neighbors and the mixed health of various family members. A one point, Annie’s mother asks a question regarding the Easter holidays at the Singers and the one who answers is Alvy’s father. This interchange briefly breaks reality, but in a way that the audience can accept. Throughout Annie Hall, Woody Allen also produces Marshall McLuhan out of thin air, talks to the audience, creates Annie’s ghost, and briefly becomes both a cartoon of himself and an orthodox Jew.

The final aspect of Annie Hall that sets it apart from most other romantic comedies is the fast paced and witty dialogue. Allen and Keaton spend much of the movie throwing out cultural references that make this film significantly more intelligent than ones average romance. It is obvious from the very beginning that this film relies on dialogue to move forward. The little action that occurs is not overly exciting; perhaps except for the scene in Annie’s car on the drive home from their tennis game (“Is this a sandwich?”). The dialogue does not simply rely on being witty to move the film forward, but relies also on the actors making it as natural as possible. Annie and Alvy’s first real talk, which occurs over a glass of wine after the tennis game, even has subtitles to allow the audience to really know what the characters must be thinking, although they are covering up their true feelings and intentions with small talk about photography. Roger Ebert agrees, stating “Because it is just about everyone's favorite Woody Allen movie, because it won the Oscar, because it is a romantic comedy, few viewers probably notice how much of it consists of people talking, simply talking. They walk and talk, sit and talk, go to shrinks, go to lunch, make love and talk, talk to the camera, or launch into inspired monologues like Annie's free-association as she describes her family to Alvy.”

The dialogue is also not only witty, but it is extremely smart. Much of the film is spent discussing (or listening to discussions about) art house film, literature, and philosophy. This is no different from other Woody Allen films; however, this films realistic subject matter makes the topics of discussion either inconsequential or more accessible to most audiences. Roger Ebert makes an interesting observation. “Consider the famous sequence where Annie and Alvy are standing in line for the movies and the blowhard behind them pontificates loudly about Fellini. When the pest switches over to McLuhan, Alvy loses patience, confronts him, and then triumphantly produces Marshall McLuhan himself from behind a movie poster to inform him, "You know nothing of my work!" This scene would be penciled out today on the presumption that no one in the audience would have heard of Fellini or McLuhan.”

Allen’s talents have obviously grown with Annie Hall, as previous films, while still very intelligent, were also filled with gags and slapstick comedy. William Gallagher of BBC News said “It's a slight story but what makes this film significant in Allen's long career is that it's really the first time he wrote adult characters. Previous movies such as the mock Russian literature epic Love and Death are funnier but are only really a sequence of gags. From here his writing (with Marshall Brickman) and directing make an unexpectedly subtle and involving movie.”

Annie Hall’s combined forces of top acting talent, unusual film techniques, and witty and intelligent dialogue makes for a movie that cannot be missed. The film frequently finds itself on top film lists year after year, even if some of the dialogue is dated by the change in intellectual interests. Diane Keaton and Woody Allen do not disappoint and the supporting cast makes every moment of the film worth while and entertaining.